Hey, it’s Sunshine Week! Sunshine Week is an initiative spearheaded by journalists nationwide to bring attention to open government and freedom of information. Since Sunshine Week is all about open access to information from and about the government, it is particular appropriate that legislation that will go pretty far in improving your access to that kind of information is expected to come up for a vote in the House this week. The legislation in question has nothing to do with enhancing the Freedom of Information Act or mandating levels of openly accessible e-Government or anything like that. Rather, it is the Plain Language Act of 2009 (H.R. 946). The Plain Language Act does its bit to promote openness in government by requiring that government documents that are released to the public be written in reasonably simple language, organized for clarity.

The connection between Sunshine Week and the Plain Language movement is pretty straightforward and easy to understand. It should be fairly easy to see why this sort of legislation would be a boon for microbusinesses and smaller non-micro small businesses, too. If federal agencies are required to write the documents they release to the public in easy to understand language, that should include both the regulations they write and the compliance guidelines the compose for us to follow. It is also noteworthy that there is no language in the bill that would exempt the IRS from having to comply. Plain language Requests For Proposals would also mean that microbusinesses would have a much easier time navigating the federal marketplace, which would address one of the largest barriers to federal procurement for them. The House bill is, as I said, scheduled for a vote this week; companion legislation has already been introduced in the Senate and currently awaits floor action.